FREE Summer Course Sessions Offered!
Dear Friends:
On this Memorial Day Weekend, let’s also not forget the “veterans” of the spiritual warfare that constantly (though often invisibly) swirls around us, and has been doing so since the fall of Lucifer from heaven and his successful sabotage of the human race by infecting us with that same spirit of rebellion, of waging war against Almighty God.
By veterans of that spiritual conflict I refer, of course, to the saints, and especially the martyrs, who have shown themselves to be valiant soldiers of the Church Militant, even to the shedding of their blood.
But every one of us is called to be such a soldier. And “the weapons we use in our fight are not the world’s weapons but God’s powerful weapons, which we use to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments. We pull down every presumption that is raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10:4-5)
When people — not only other people but also ourselves — aren’t armed with the necessary knowledge, they (and we) are going to make bad decisions, and bring disappointment, disaster, and defeat to our lives, to the lives of our loved ones, and to our nation. “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge,” says the Lord (Hosea 4:6). Elsewhere God says, "Therefore My people go into exile for their lack of knowledge” (Isaiah 5:13).
We can do our part in this fight — we can be Catholic commandos — by bringing to bear upon the controversial issues of our day the relevant data from Sacred Scripture, from sound philosophy (including logic), from Church history, from Catholic theology and apologetics, from canon law and other important intellectual disciplines, and thus save people (including ourselves) and save our nation from making disastrous decisions. “The lips of the right-minded feed many, but fools die for lack of understanding.” (Proverbs 10:21)
Later this summer I’m launching a lecture tour on the topic “How to Prove That God Exists.” It starts in New England and will eventually sweep across the entire country — including my finally making it to speak in Alaska (God willing), the only one of our 50 states I’ve not yet spoken in (though I lived there for two years when I was 11 and 12 years old).
To raise funds now for this lecture tour and Biblical Foundations International’s many other educational projects, I’m currently making the following extremely generous offer.
Last summer (2016) I launched St. Hermengild Online College to offer people the possibility of taking college-level courses from me without having to leave their own home. With Memorial Day weekend upon us — for many, it’s the “de facto” start of summertime — I’d like to offer some FREE summer school course sessions for those interested.
My students and I meet face-to-face over the Internet via video calls, using whatever free videoconferencing app you prefer: Skype, Google Hangouts, etc. (If you don't currently use one of these apps, I'll personally explain to you how to download and use one: it only takes two minutes to download, set up, and starting using one!)
All such apps are not only free, but can be used from a computer, tablet, or smartphone — even a friend’s computer (or tablet or smartphone, for that matter), or one at the local library, if you don’t own a computer yourself.
Any of these apps will enable you to see me and any visual aids I employ, ask me questions and offer comments, and otherwise visually and verbally interact with me throughout each lesson, which will be tailored to your interest and skill level.
I currently have students in Alabama, California, Colorado, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and am actively engaged in acquiring others. But right now I want to give you all a unique opportunity to join this growing body of online students by offering you as many FREE hours of instruction as you’d like to qualify for. (See details below.)
Summer affords some people some free time in their schedule to take an academic course at their local college or university, but as you know, courses even at relatively inexpensive community colleges can typically cost several hundreds of dollars each.
Having been a college and graduate school professor myself since the 1980s (at Christendom College, St. Joseph University in Philadelphia, the University of San Diego, Aquinas College, Westminster Theological Seminary, Notre Dame Graduate School, and Our Lady of Guadalupe International Seminary), I am equipped to offer college-level instruction in the courses listed below, but at a mere fraction of the cost you'd incur if you were to take them at a conventional brick-and-mortar school.
The cost of each hour-long session is normally the amazingly low price of only $50. I’ve researched this, checking out tutors all across our country, and most tutors typically charge $75 or more per hour for such personalized, one-on-one instruction.
But if you act NOW, the next ten people to sign up as students with me will receive a FREE hour of instruction for EACH hour they prepay for (with a minimum purchase of two hours).
Another way to consider this special offer (instead of viewing it as one free session gained for every paid session) is that it effectively slashes the price of each hour session IN HALF, dropping the hourly rate from $50 to only $25 (because you’re getting, not one, but TWO sessions for each $50 you spend) — an amazing educational bargain!
And you can use this LIMITED-TIME offer right now to get as many FREE sessions as you like. If you pre-pay for two sessions ($100), you’ll get TWO free additional sessions (for a total of four sessions). But pre-pay for four sessions and you’ll get FOUR free additional sessions (a total of eight sessions), and so forth. The more sessions you pre-pay for, the more FREE sessions you earn. There’s no limit! (Sign up for twenty sessions, for example, and you’ll get TWENTY FREE HOURS of instruction with me!)
But it’s to your advantage to pre-pay for as many of these hours as you can, while this special is running: once the special sale offering FREE hours is over (in other words, once the first ten people have responded to this offer), you can of course still sign up for a course or courses, but you WON’T be able to get a free hour for each hour purchased.
The frequency with which we meet for your course(s) is entirely up to YOU. Most students will probably want to meet with me once a week, but I’m flexible and can meet with you more often (for example, 2-3 times a week, as I do with one family), or less often (for example, once a month) — whatever works better for you.
The length and depth of each course is also entirely up to YOU. (How's that for unprecedented customization?) Take any of these courses at whatever level of detail you wish. Want to study the Gospel of John, for example, in full detail, over twenty-one sessions — one for each chapter of the gospel? Or would you rather cover it at a faster, less-detailed pace, covering the entire gospel in only ten, or even five, or two sessions? Or are you satisfied to simply have an hour-long overview of the gospel in only one session? It’s your call!
The start date for the course is also entirely up to YOU. Pre-paying now does not oblige you to start the course now: you can pre-pay now to qualify for the free lesson(s), but we can start the sessions on whatever date you select in June, July, August, September, or whenever suits you.
The day(s) of the week and the time of day we meet — morning, afternoon, or evening — is also entirely up to YOU.
Here is a list of the courses I’m prepared to offer you this summer:
Bible 101: The Basic Themes of Sacred Scripture: An Overview
Old Testament 101: Basics of Biblical Hebrew
Old Testament 201: The Book of Genesis
Old Testament 202: The Book of Exodus
Old Testament 208: The Book of Ruth
Old Testament 216: The Book of Job
Old Testament 228: The Book of Daniel
Old Testament 230: The Book of Jonah
Old Testament 233: The Books of First and Second Maccabees
New Testament 101: Basics of Biblical Greek
New Testament 201: The Gospel of Mark
New Testament 203: The Gospel of Luke
New Testament 204: The Gospel of John
New Testament 205: The Acts of the Apostles
New Testament 206: St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans
New Testament 214: St. Paul’s Epistle to the Hebrews
New Testament 219: The Apocalypse of St. John
Church History 101: The First Six Centuries of Christianity
Church History 401: History of the Papacy Through the Middle Ages
Church History 501: The Continental Protestant Reformation: Luther
Church History 502: The Continental Protestant Reformation: Calvin
Church History 503: The English Reformation, and Its Relevance Today
Church History 701: The Second Vatican Council: Its History, Its Sixteen Documents, and Its Implementation Up to the Present Day
Patristics 101: The Apostolic Fathers
Patristics 104: The Life, Theology, and Works of St. Augustine
Philosophy 101: History of Philosophy from Ancient Times to Today
Philosophy 201: Logic & Critical Thinking
Theology 101: The Doctrine of God
Theology 102: The Doctrine of the Trinity
Theology 201: St. Thomas Aquinas’s Summa Theologiae, Part I
Theology 401: The Doctrines Concerning Mary
Theology 491: The Doctrine of Hell
Theology 501: Classic Catholic Moral Theology
Apologetics 201: The Case for Theism
Apologetics 303: The Case Against Islam
Apologetics 304: The Case Against the Jehovah’s Witnesses
Apologetics 305: The Case Against Mormonism
Aoologetics 306: The Case Against Hinduism
Apologetics 307: The Case Against Eastern Orthodoxy
Apologetics 309: The Case Against Protestantism
Apologetics 501: Anti-Sedevacantism Refuted: A Detailed Critique of John Salza and Robert Siscoe’s True or False Pope?
Spirituality 301: Biblical Insights into the Fifteen Mysteries of the Rosary
Canon Law 101: The 1917 Code of Canon Law
Marriage and Family 101: Classic Catholic Teaching on Marriage and the Family
Political Science 101: Classic Catholic Teaching on the State
US History 101: From Earliest Colonial Times through 1865
US History 201: History of the US Presidency from George Washington through Abraham Lincoln
World History 101: Ancient History to the Fall of Rome in AD 476
World Literature 101: The Greek Classics: Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey
World Literature 102: Greek Tragedy: Aeschylus, Euripides, Sophocles
World Literature 201: Greek and Roman Mythology
World Literature 202: Latin Classics: Vergil and Ovid
World Literature 401: Dante’s Divine Comedy
American Literature 501: Catholic Themes in the Fiction of Flannery O’Connor
English Literature 501: G.K. Chesterton: Early Works
English Literature 601: Catholic Themes in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings
English Literature 602: The Works of C.S. Lewis, part one
Drama 201: Shakespeare’s Hamlet
Drama 202: Shakespeare’s King Lear
Science 102: Creation vs. Evolution
Education 101: Designing a Classical Catholic Homeschooling Curriculum
Latin 101: First Year Latin
French 101: First Year French
English 101: English Grammar & Composition
Chess 101: Beginning Chess Fundamentals & Strategies
It's overwhelmingly unlikely, of course (to put it mildly!), that I'll actually end up teaching all these courses this summer, since I doubt that every one of these courses will have at least one person registering for it. But they are all prepared, and all available for your choosing.
BUT YOU ARE NOT LIMITED TO THE ABOVE COURSE LIST! If there is a subject you would enjoy studying with me that is not listed here, feel free to contact me with a proposal (as some of my students already have done, resulting in some new courses added to the above list). If I possess sufficient mastery of the subject to be competent to teach it, I’ll be happy to customize a course on that topic, tailor-made just for you!
Payment may be made by PayPal, credit card (Visa, MasterCard, or Discover), or by check. You needn't pay for the entire course in advance, if you wish to devote several sessions to the topic: you can pay as you go. But to get FREE sessions, you'll need to be one of the first ten people to respond to this offer and pre-pay for at least two sessions, as explained above.
If you are interested in taking a course from me, I urge you to contact me as soon as possible so that you are one of the first ten people to respond to this offer and receive the FREE class sessions. Here’s another reason to hurry: logistically, I can only offer so many courses and can have only so many students at a time. There are only so many hours in the day! (Keep in mind that I already have several such students currently taking courses from me.) Instruction in any of these courses is available on a first-come, first-serve basis, so email or call me TODAY to reserve your time slot — and earn your FREE sessions!
Yours committed to growing along with you in the grace and knowledge of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:18),
Gerry Matatics,
Founder & President, Biblical Foundations International
e-mail: gerrymatatics@gerrymatatics.org
phone: (570) 969-1724